4/26 – Dan Nichols: Finite Fields and the Mathematics of Forward Error Correction

Sorry for the late announcement, but if you can, please join us tomorrow as Math club hosts its final talk of the semester. We meet Wednesday 4/26, from 5-6 pm in LGRT 1528. Dan Nichols will give what may well be his final UMass math club talk, on Finite Fields and the Mathematics of Forward Error Correction. His abstract is below.

Finite Fields and the Mathematics of Forward Error Correction

Error-correcting codes for reliably storing and transmitting data are an essential tool of the information age, and many of the most widely used algorithms are based on number theoretic concepts such as finite field arithmetic. I will give a brief overview of the mathematics of coding theory and describe several popular types of codes including Reed-Solomon codes.

There will be a final math club next week, with no talk scheduled. We’ll just enjoy pizza and some down time together to do some mathy things, perhaps play some set, or watch some math videos.